In Europe we really have a different opinion on sex and nudity. Over here gore and explicit displayal of violence, dismemberment of body parts and such is considered to be offensive, sex and a nice pair of boobs are not!
Exactly, and IMHO that is a much healthier perspective on life. I too grew up in Europe - I went to museums and art galleries from a young age, saw beautiful statues and artworks depicting the human form, it was just culturally acceptable. Even religious art often depicts and deals with sex, nudity, rape, etc - all of which are mentioned in the Bible. These are human issues for people to talk about, not sweep under the rug and hope they go away. And there is no shortage of breasts depicted in religious art from the Renaissance period.
Restricting human sexuality so much that even education about it is denied to young people (as in many places in the USA), is what creates some of the problems GM4Him describes above in the first place! Twisted media portrayal of sex, sexual addiction, etc. Sex is a natural human impulse, and it's only fair to explore it through stories. Also, if teens want media with sexual content, then trust me they will find it.
So true! I actually think Australians in general are culturally much closer to Europe, because of England and the Commonwealth history. Unfortunately I've never been to Australia, yet. As a sidenote you do have quite the most poisonous creatures in the whole world, I mean you've got sharks, crocodiles, snakes and deadly spiders - critters we gladly don't have in Europe to this extend. I'm not sure if I really wanted to go swimming in Australia f.e.... And if you're out of fuel in the Outback, you're dead! But nevertheless I'd like to see Sidney and Ayer's Rock someday. ;-) Anyway I like Australians, they tend to be less pc, than most other people from Western countries, including Germany. I respect that a lot, tough and brave people!
We do share roots with the US of course, all whites in the US actually derive from Europeans, but still there is a cultural gap nowadays, which is undeniable. Please don't take this as anti-American statement, I visited the States twice already and I enjoyed it. Americans tend to be very friendly people. And there is so much more to see. But still some things are handled differently over here than over the big pond. It might have had a reason why religious fanatics of all sorts had to leave the continent some centuries ago... just, saying...
(We had our cruel religious motivated wars in Europe like the 30 Years War in Germany (1618-48), with a death toll of 1/3 of the overall German population back then between Catholics and Lutherans or the Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France on Protestant Huguenots and much more. The Early Modern Age history of Ireland is also on that list. So we wanted to get rid of potential troublemakers, who were considered to be a danger to the newly found common sense, which simply provided peace between the different Christian confessions…)
Again, Im not talking mods or fade to black sex. KOTOR faded to black. You kinda knew Bastilla and the main were having a romantic interlude. BG1 and 2 did very well. Again, fade to black. NWN 1 and 2, no sex. Did well. Final Fantasy 7 gets somewhat close, but again, no actual sex scenes.
Guys. I get it. Really. You want to keep the sex in the game. Im actually pleasantly surprised BG3 wasn't more sexually graphic and such. Like I said, I almost didn't buy it because I didn't want to play a game with that stuff in it. So Im happy they at least made it so someone wasn't just throwing themselves at you or stripping naked in front of you to entice you.
Im basically saying 2 things. I think the game would actually do better from a sales perspective if it removed sex scenes, and if they don't remove them maybe the characters could just respond more to you soliciting them as opposed to them soliciting you.
Basically, if you want sex scenes then pursue it, but maybe don't slap players who don't want it in the face with it. If sex in a game is something a player has to pursue, then when people review the game and say what the content is, they can say that the game is actually pretty tame as long as you don't do xyz to trigger sex. Then parents may be more open to letting their teens and such play it. See what Im saying? Like it or not, Larian is limiting their market more by having sex scenes.
And, btw, I did some other research on this too. It may be unfortunate, but America is still the country where the most video game sales occur, so it is kinda important to reach that market.
A mature rpg game requires some sexy content in it (soft-core) nowadays. The overwhelming majority expects and appreciates that. It's like a TV-series on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Do you think f.e. Game of Thrones would have been as successful without the sex and honestly occasionally very sexy bare boobs in it? Sure the writing was excellent, the plot stunning, the dialogues great and the actors overwhelming, but still sex and nudity was the salt in the soup. Millions across the globe enjoyed it and GoT was definitively not prude, despite being a fantasy story made in the US.I loved it and so did my girlfriend! GoT had a perfect mixture and attracted a lot of people, who usually aren't interest in fanatasy, so did Witcher 3 for the rpg gaming genre.I think some Puritan parents really don't matter concerning sales... The modern worldwide audience enjoys this kind of content, if it is well done. But concerning BG3 it's okay, that the player has to pursue it. It shouldn't jump on everyone's face, that's okay. Just like the quite funny Ogre and Hobgoblin, scene, it's your choice to open the barn or not. So far you can avoid any romance in BG3 pretty easily by dialogue in the camp. I did get some gay vibes in my plathrough by the companions, but I didn't react to those. I have no propblem with gays, to be clear, I'm just into women and women only and therefore a homosexual romance won't happen in my game.
So I don't really know what you're complaining about? I didn't see bare boobs, yet in the game f.e. (I didn't play the Minthara route, yet) But If I pursue a romance with a hopefully better/more attractive option than Shadowheart in the future, I actually would like to see some sexy content... It would be a shame if Larian chickened out here and gave in to Wizards of the Coasts, who might have too much an eye for the sentiments of the US biblebelt. That's my only fear for this otherwise great game.
